Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Flipboard 1 A small business blog is a valuable asset when it comes to marketing your business. It’s a way to compete with the larger competition. Instead of playing with hefty marketing budgets, the only thing a blog will cost is your time. It can also produce several benefits for your website and your business, whether you are in the b2c or b2b space. Why a Small Business Blog is a Necessity: More traffic – Each page of your website, including published blog posts, serve as a window into your website. Most sites have a few dozen pages. Some sites have more, and some have less. Writing and publishing consistently on your small business blog give you the opportunity to have hundreds, or thousands of entry points into your website. Each of these posts can rank in Google. Each can be published and promoted on social media. They expose your business to interested people who otherwise wouldn’t have known it existed. The ability to convert that traffic – Of course, that traffic does nothing for you, if you don’t convert. A small business blog offers you the chance to provide real, compelling value to your readers. You can also link to product or service pages, and create engaging calls to action to entice your readers to act. If you’ve provided value throughout the bulk of the post, suggesting your readers call you for more information, or asking for the sale will be acceptable to most readers. To be an industry authority – Your small business blog gives you the opportunity to turn your website into an industry resource. It gives you the opportunity to educate your audience, answer questions, and provide valuable information. Readers may spend more time with you, and be more willing to do business with you when they view you as an industry authority. To start a conversation – A blog post is just the start of a conversation. You can ask questions within your blog, and invite your audience to respond on Facebook and Twitter, or via email. In this way, it can quickly become a relationship-building tool. Your blog can strengthen current relationships, while helping you grow your audience at the same time. A story telling platform – Your readers are far more likely to remember a story than a random nugget of data. An emotional story is an excellent catalyst to compel a sale. Your blog is the place to tell your business’s story. It’s the place to tell customer success stories. It’s the place to develop your voice, and build a platform. When you develop some traction with your small business blog, it can result in more leads. In fact, b2b marketers who blog receive 67 percent more leads than those who don’t. The same study from Hubspot found that a blog makes your business 13 times more likely to enjoy a positive ROI. Have you started your small business blog yet? How has it helped your business? Twitter Tweet Facebook Share Email This article originally appeared on Matthew L Brennan and has been republished with permission.Find out how to syndicate your content with B2C Author: Matt Brennan Follow @MattLBrennan Matt Brennan is a Chicago-area marketing writer, delivering the best content marketing strategies straight to your inbox. He is also the author of Write Right - Sell Now. … View full profile ›More by this author:How Writing Your Own Marketing Copy Can Make You a Better PersonHow to Write the Best Web Content for Your BusinessThe Benefits of Hiring a Blog Copywriter